MEASURE Evaluation (USAID and PEPFAR): Small Grants to Support Research in Family Planning

29 Nov, 2017

Background

The MEASURE Evaluation project has announced a request for applications for its small grants program to increase the evidence base in routine health information systems (RHIS) in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH).

The small grants are intended to support primary and secondary data analysis – especially national and sub-national program or policy evaluation. The overall goal is to use the research findings to improve RHIS and advance FP outcomes. Small grant recipients are expected to produce a publishable manuscript and complete a data use activity.

Objectives

The three primary objectives of this program are:

To build research capacity among local agencies

To address research gaps in routine health information for FP/RH to inform policy and programmatic decision-making

To increase use of research findings by providing an opportunity for the data to be disseminated to and used by local stakeholders

The base amount for a small grant is US$10,000, which is intended to cover basic research expenses for a twelve-month timeline.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible candidates include country or regional academic institutions or centers, non-profit and for-profit research organizations, parastatals, and research-focused NGOs or firms. Individuals representing themselves and not an institution/ organization, as well as those representing a regional/field office for an international NGO are ineligible for this funding opportunity. All candidates must be from a USAIDFP/RH priority country (listed below). Candidates must be seeking to build their research and/or data use capacity.

Eligible proposals should be comprised of a team of three people (minimum), submitted on behalf of an NGO, university, etc. The team should have previous research experience, preferably in FP specifically, or RH in general, but need not be highly proficient in research techniques as technical and administrative assistance will be available to sub-grantees at all stages of the small grants program to build organizational research capacity.

Eligible applications will use appropriate and rigorous methods to respond to a question of interest to stakeholders in the country or region being studied. Potential topic areas are listed at the end of the RFA. Applications should also include data use activities and/or products that help ensure the use of research findings by appropriate stakeholders, which may include: the development of a short briefing paper with recommendations and a presentation of the key actionable findings from the analysis; holding a workshop for policymakers and/or program decision makers to discuss key findings and the implication of these findings for policies and programs; organizing a meeting with national or regional level staff from the ministry of health to discuss the research findings and develop an action plan based on the findings; and so forth.